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Friday, March 16, 2012

The Skinny: Flyers 3, Isles 2

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

Game 71

Flyers 3, Isles 2

Ilya Bryzgalov set a Flyer record by extending his shutout streak to 249:43 before Michael Grabner and John Tavares scored 35 seconds apart in the third period to rally the Isles from a 3-0 deficit, but the Flyers held on for a 3-2 victory before a crowd of 13,827 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.The Islanders matched a club record by dropping their fourth consecutive one-goal decision; they are now 0-3-2 in the last five games.Philadelphia has won seven of their last eight.

The Scoring:

1st Period

8:41 EV PHI 36 Z.RINALDO(2) 14 S.COUTURIER(12) 8 N.GROSSMANN(10)

13:26 EV PHI 28 C.GIROUX(26) 68 J.JAGR(29) 19 S.HARTNELL(29)

2nd Period

7:02 EV PHI 19 S.HARTNELL(33) 44 K.TIMONEN(35) 28 C.GIROUX(56)

3rd Period

13:30 EV NYI 40 M.GRABNER(16) 2 M.STREIT(33) 42 D.REESE(3)

14:05 EV NYI 91 J.TAVARES(31) 2 M.STREIT(34)

The Skinny: Tavares takes over the club lead in goals (31); the Islanders are the 2nd team in the NHL with two 30-goal scorers (Pittsburgh: Malkin/Neal). Claude Giroux now has 82 points; it's the 2nd highest total by a Flyer since the lockout (Jeff Carter 84).Scott Hartnell has career highs in goals and points; Hartnell's goal turned out to be his 6th game-winner against the Isles in the last five seasons. Michael Grabner's goal, his first in 14 games, was his 50th as an Islander.For the third straight game, at least one defenseman earned a point on each goal (9 goals total).Tavares (4-3-7) now has a four game point streak; Streit has a three game assist streak (0-4-4).

The Shots:

Isles 11-9-11=31

Flyers 9-8-5=22

The 31 shots matches the most by the Isles in the last 16 games.They last had more than 31 shots on February 9th, when they had 33 vs. Montreal.

Home and Road

The Islanders are 28-32-11 overall and are 15-16-6 at home. The Isles are 16-6-11 in one-goal games.

Philadelphia is 41-22-7 overall and 23-12-2 on the road. The Flyers are 22-4-7 in one-goal games.

In the Nets

Evgeni Nabokov stopped 29 shots.He is 16-18-3 on the season.

Ilya Bryzgalov made 19 saves for Philadelphia as he improves to 29-13-6 on the campaign.He has won seven straight games, allowing a total of seven goals in that span.

Leaning on #91

John Tavares has 70 points (31-39-70) on 161 Islander goals this season (43.5%).No Islander since Zigmund Palffy has recorded points on over 40% of the team's goals in a complete season. He is the first Islander since Alexei Yashin (75 in 2001-02) to record at least 70 points in a season.

He's a Homer

Tavares is 23-17-40 at the Coliseum this season. Only Steven Stamkos (31) and Phil Kessel (24) have more goals on their home ice.

1 Point to Royalty

Only three players in Islander history have recorded at least 71 points at age 21 or younger.All have banners hanging at the Coliseum: Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier and Denis Potvin.

Don't Forget PA

PA Parenteau has 61 points. Parenteau has points on 37.9% of the Islanders' goals this season.He has 46 assists – most by any Islander since Pierre Turgeon had 74 and Vladimir Malakhov had 47 in the 1993-94 season.

The Islanders went 0-2 on the power play while Flyers did not have a power play.The Isles are 5-40 in the last 13 games with the extra man and had killed only 25 of 38 in the same span.This was the fourth time this season that the opponent did not have a power play.The Isles have not been shorthanded in either of the last two games – something that has not happened in at least 25 years.

They Said It

Bruce Ratner, head of the group that run the Barclays Center: "My real goal is to make sure that the Islanders stay in New York, obviously. … New York needs the Islanders."

"We gave them two gifts. I thought we could have got some momentum back late in the second period when we had back-to-back power plays, and we didn't execute at all."

Leading Ice Men

Mark Streit led the Isles with 23:19; Matt Carle led Philadelphia with 26:08.

In the Circle

The Islanders won 24 draws; the Flyers won 25.Frans Nielsen won 7 of 9 for the Isles; Sean Couturier won 8 of 14 for Philadelphia.

Heavy Hitters

The Islanders out-hit Washington 23-15. Milan Jurcina had seven hits while NHL hit leader Matt Martin added six. Martin has a club record 326 hits (hits have only been recorded since 2005-06) and leads the NHL in hits by a wide margin.The NHL record is 356, set by Cal Clutterbuck of Minnesota in 2008-09.

Lots of Blocks

The Isles were credited with 14 blocks.They lead the NHL with 1,201.Andrew MacDonald led the Isles with five blocks.

Goals by Period (Season)

Isles:56-51-51-3 = 161

Opponents: 63-64-76-7 = 210

Third period goals include 8 empty net goals for the Islanders and an NHL-leading 13 empty-net goals against the Isles.

All-time Winners

The Islanders drop to 1 game over all-time NHL .500 (1341-1340-432 in 3,113 games). The Isles have twice this season been one game below .500. Prior to this season, they had not been below NHL .500 since they were 177-178-83 prior to their victory on January 16, 1978.

Scoring

The Isles have scored 89 goals in their 28 wins (3.18 per game) and 73 goals in their other 43 games (0-32-11; 1.70 per game).In their 32 regulation losses, the Isles have scored 41 goals (1.28 per game).

Head of the Class

John Tavares has 191 career points; he is 43 points ahead of Matt Duchene for most among 2009 draft picks.No other player in that draft is anywhere close.

Longest Point Streaks in NHL, Last 2 Seasons

·Sidney Crosby, 25 games (11/5/10-12/28/10)

·Eric Staal, 12 games (2/8/12-3/6/12)

·John Tavares, 12 games (12/29/11-1/21/12)

·Ilya Kovalchuk 12 games (2/1/11-2/25/11)

Friends, Friends, Friends

Moulson has 30 goals this season; John Tavares has earned assists on 19 of them.He has now been on-ice for 54 consecutive Moulson goals, earning assists on 35 of them, dating back to a Moulson goal on November 17, 2010 against Tampa.

30-30-30

Matt Moulson is the first Islander since Ziggy Palffy (1995-96 to 1997-98) to have at least three consecutive 30-goal seasons. Only 4 players in Islander history have had more thirty goal seasons: Trottier (11), Bossy (10), Gillies (6), LaFontaine (6). Moulson has 91 goals as an Islander – the most by any Islander since the lockout. Moulson has opened the scoring an NHL-leading 11 times this season and the Isles are 9-1-1 when he does so.He is the first Islander with at least 11 opening goals since Alexei Yashin had 12 in 2001-02.

30-30

Tavares and Moulson give the Isles two 30-goal scorers for the second straight season (Grabner 34, Moulson 31 last year). Prior to last year, the Isles had not had two 30-goal scorers since 2001-02 (Alexei Yashin & Mark Parrish).It's the first time since 1992-93 and 1993-94 that the Isles have had multiple 30-goal scorers in consecutive seasons (4 in both 92-93 and 93-94).

20-20-20 x 2

Moulson and Tavares are the first Islander teammates to record at least twenty goals in three straight seasons since Mark Parrish and Jason Blake did so in 2002-03, 2003-04, and 2005-06.Tavares, by the way, is the fifth player to score at least 20 goals for the Islanders in each of his first three NHL seasons, joining:

Matt Moulson, the Isles' reigning ironman, has played in all 235 games since joining the team. Moulson's streak is the longest for an Islander in the Post-Cup era. Billy Harris played in the first 576 games in Islander history; that figure still stands as the club record.

Frans Nielsen and John Tavares have also played in every game this season while Mark Streit is the only Islander defender to do so.The Isles have not had as many as four players play in every game since 1986-87.

Longest Consecutive Game Streaks, Islander History

1.Billy Harris576

2.Bob Nystrom 301

3.Denis Potvin 262

4.J.P. Parise 240

5.Matt Moulson 235

Missing Men

Marty Reasoner (healthy) and Steve Staios (healthy) were scratched. Rick DiPietro is on injured reserve.The Isles have lost 329 man-games to injury so far this season.Al Montoya, who has played in only five games since his collision with Evander Kane in late December, served as the back-up

.

Career Years

·Matt Moulson: 28 assists and 57 points are new career highs. He has 30 goals, one shy of his career best.

·PA Parenteau: 46 assists and 61 points are new career highs. He has 15 goals, five shy of his career best.

·John Tavares: 31 goals, 39 assists and 70 points are new career highs.

·Frans Nielsen has 13 goals, matching a career-high set last year.

·Kyle Okposo has 15 goals, four shy of his career-high set in 2009-10.

The Flyers win the season series 4 games to 2 (9 points to 5). Philadelphia wins all three games on Long Island; the Isles are 1-10-3 in their last 14 at home against Philadelphia.

Happy Anniversary

33 years ago tonight (3-15-79):Bryan Trottier had the hat trick as the Isles trashed the Leafs 6-2 at the Coliseum.

All-time, the Isles are 7-9-0 on this date.

On The Farm

The Sound Tigers are 32-20-3-5 overall, having earned points in 24 of their last 27 games.Bridgeport has 72 points, tied with Connecticut for the division lead. The Sound Tigers also hold a game in hand.Bridgeport begins a three road game in three day weekend at Connecticut on Friday.

The Islanders look for a split in the season series when they begin a five-game road trip in Montreal. Les Habitants lead the series 2 games to 1.The Isles are 3-6-1 in their last 10 trips to Montreal, but will be looking for their first regulation victory there since February 3, 2007.

Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since 1982. Information contained in "The Skinny" has been gathered from various sources.Follow Eric @ehornick on Twitter.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick